I saw some of the film of the accident. His aircraft was on the port side and there was a accident on the other side that sent 3 or 5" rockets screaming across to his side. He had to climb out on the refueling probe and drop off to avoid the fire.
Carriers would have accidents like this every so often. Two people from my high school were on the Enterprise when their accident happened. One stayed with the ship and the other one transferred into subs.
While I was on land at my base, my future brother in law was on the Constellation on Yankee Station. They had to do a double tour because their releif cdarrier caught fire.